Targeting and audiences: showing the ad to the right people

Targeting is deciding who won't see your ad

People think targeting means choosing who to talk to. Mostly, it's choosing who not to pay to talk to. Every impression shown to someone who'll never buy is a euro lost. The real skill isn't widening the audience to "reach more people", but tightening it enough that every euro lands on someone plausible — without making it so narrow that the algorithm chokes.

:::key[Key takeaway] Good targeting is as much exclusion as inclusion. A relevant audience costs less per click and converts better than a broad, poorly qualified one. :::

The three audience temperatures

Every targeting strategy rests on a simple idea: people aren't at the same stage of relationship with you.

The classic mistake is serving the same message to everyone. You don't propose marriage on the first date: to a cold audience, you don't send "buy now", but "here's why this problem matters".

Platform-side targeting tools

Each manager offers its own levers, and you need to know which to use:

• Meta Ads Manager: targeting by interests, behaviors and demographics for cold; but Meta increasingly recommends letting the algorithm find the audience (broad targeting + good creative).
• Google Ads: on search, keywords do the targeting; on YouTube and Display, you target by audiences, topics and intents.
• LinkedIn Campaign Manager: targeting by job title, industry, company size, skills — unmatched B2B precision.
• TikTok Ads: interests, behaviors and lookalike audiences, with strong reliance on the creative to refine.

:::info[Trend: the creative is the new targeting] On Meta and TikTok, the algorithms now often know better than you who will convert, provided the creative speaks clearly to an audience. You widen the targeting and let the ad itself filter the audience. :::

Custom audiences: reusing what you already own

Your best results almost always come from people who already know you. Custom audiences let you retarget them:

• Importing your email / customer list: you upload your contacts (Meta, Google, LinkedIn) to talk to them again — one of your most profitable levers.
• Site visitors: thanks to the pixel (see the tracking chapter), retarget those who came without buying.
• Engagers: on Meta, retarget those who watched a video, visited the profile, interacted with a post.

:::tip[Tip: retargeting is advertising's best return] Retargeting someone who already visited your site costs a fraction of cold and converts far better. Before widening toward the unknown, make sure you recover those who already reached out. :::

Lookalike audiences: cloning your good customers

Once you have a quality audience (your buyers, your best leads), platforms can find lookalikes: strangers who statistically resemble your customers. It's the bridge between retargeting and cold prospecting.

• Meta: lookalike audiences built from your buyers are often the best entry point to cold.
• Google: similar segments and optimized targeting play a close role.

The quality of the lookalike depends entirely on the quality of the source list: a lookalike built on "all visitors" is worth less than one built on "customers who bought twice".

:::warning[Trap: feeding a lookalike with a weak source] A lookalike built on a broad, poorly qualified audience reproduces that fuzziness. Build your lookalikes on your best customers, not on any visitor. :::

Exclusion: the weapon people forget

Excluding is as important as including. You exclude current customers from an acquisition campaign (no point paying to sell what they already have), you exclude recent visitors from a cold campaign so as not to count them twice, you exclude audiences that never convert. Each exclusion concentrates the budget where it matters.

:::example[Concrete case] An e-commerce seller launches an acquisition campaign and forgets to exclude existing customers. Result: 30% of the budget goes to showing a "first order" promo to people who already ordered. A simple exclusion of the "buyers" audience recovers that wasted third of the budget. :::

Key takeaways

:::key[The chapter's key points]

• Targeting is as much exclusion as inclusion: each useless impression is a euro lost.
• Match the message to the temperature: cold (problem), warm (proof), hot (offer).
• Retargeting of visitors and your email list is advertising's best return.
• Build your lookalike audiences on your best customers, not on all visitors.
• On Meta and TikTok, increasingly let the creative refine the targeting. :::